


Te He Querido, Te He Llorado (Ivy Queen)

by ReadersInflammation



Category: One Day at a Time (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Domestic Violence, F/M, Humor, Hurt Schneider (One Day at a Time), Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:06:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24797395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReadersInflammation/pseuds/ReadersInflammation
Summary: Te He Querido, Te He Llorado - I Have Loved You, I Have Cried For YouEsa tipa es muy mala - Literally, "that girl is very bad" but 'esa tipa' has a condescending and derogatory connotationEsa tipa es tonta if she treats mi chiquillo like he is anything other than un osito. Oh, mijo, you are our pedacito de Cielo and we love you. - That girl is silly if she treats my boy like he is anything other than a teddy bear. Oh, my son, you are our little piece of Heaven and we love you.
Relationships: Penelope Alvarez & Schneider, Schneider/Nikki (Finn's mom)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 43





	Te He Querido, Te He Llorado (Ivy Queen)

[Thursday morning]

The front door opened and Penelope laughed at what she saw. 

“What the hell are you wearing?”

Schneider stopped in his tracks, still holding the door knob, before opening his mouth in offense and scoffing.

“This, Pen, wearer of last year’s boyfriend jeans,” he teased while nodding his head towards her casual denim, “is the pinnacle of style, the height of couture, the very best of celebrity fashion. Silk scarf over a white button-up with sleeves rolled to elbow length and leather vest—fake leather, Elena!”

“Actually,” Elena said from her seat at the table and her grandmother groaned before sipping her _café cubano_. “Fake leather is just plastic which produces cancer-causing byproducts and doesn’t decompose like genuine leather, thus releasing dangerous chemicals into the water and soil.”

Schneider stared at Elena for a second after she ended her speech. With a truly enthusiastic “damn it!” he took off the vest and threw it down the hallway. He turned back into the apartment and closed the door behind him. 

“So why are you dressed like Johnny Depp’s third-rate cousin?” Penelope asked while smiling into her morning coffee. 

At this, Schneider merely shrugged and sat down at the table for breakfast. “Felt like I needed a change.”

“There are better ways to change if you’re stuck in a rut,” Penelope said before passing him the maple syrup for his pancakes. “Like making your own breakfast in the mornings.”

“Eh, not really my style,” he shot back before drowning his food with the sugary syrup and digging into the dish. His best friend laughed at the comeback and he smiled with cheeks full of pancake. 

“I do have exciting news, though!” he said after swallowing the way-too-big-for-his-mouth bite. “I asked Nikki to move in with me and she said yes!”

Everyone stared at him for a second before mumbling halfhearted variations of congratulations. Schneider furrowed his brows in confusion. 

“What?”

At the guarded glances between the family around him, Schneider became impatient. 

“Come on guys, what is it?”

Penelope set her silverware down and turned towards her best friend slightly. 

“Are you sure about Nikki moving into your apartment?”

Schneider blinked. “Uh, yeah,” he laughed. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“She just doesn’t seem like. . . .” Penelope trailed off and Alex jumped in to finish the thought. 

“She likes you?”

“Alex!” Penelope admonished, but Schneider just laughed. 

“What? Of course she likes me! We hang out all of the time now that her husband got custody of Finn. Plus, she agreed to move in with me, so.”

“Okay,” Penelope said with an uncomfortable tone. “Well, then we’re happy for you, Schneider.”

Everybody nodded in agreeance before they all, including Schneider, went back to their breakfast.

After helping her mother and Schneider clear the table, Penelope began to get ready to leave for work. 

“Come on kids. i _Vamos_ or we’ll be late!” The siblings ran to their rooms to collect their bags. 

“I can take them today, Pen,” Schneider called from the kitchen. 

“Thanks, Schneider. They can’t miss homeroom again or the principal will call me again. You’re a life-saver,” she told him, hating the commute to school and then to work, which adds at least 15 minutes to everyone’s morning. While looking in her purse for her wallet and keys, Elena bounded back into the living room. 

“Is Schneider driving us?” she asked. 

“Yes,” Penelope said. 

Elena ran into the kitchen. “Ooh! Can I drive us to school?”

“That’s up to your mom,” he said, causing Elena to whirl around and go back into the living to face the woman in question. 

“Mom, can I drive us to school?”

With a sigh, she responded, “only if Schneider’s okay with it.” Both women looked into the kitchen for his response. 

When he nodded, Elena screamed “yes!” and ran back to the kitchen to grab the keys that he held out to her. 

“But,” Penelope interjected. “Alex sits in the back and Schneider sits in the passenger seat. And you have to listen to him if he tells you to stop doing something.”

“Okay mom jeez,” Elena grumbled. “I did pass my driver’s test you know?”

“I know you did, sweetie. Drive safe, both of you,” she said, looking at Elena and Schneider. She kissed Elena and Alex goodbye before grabbing Schneider’s arm and catching his gaze. 

“You’re still in charge. If she does something wrong, I’m trusting you to take care of it,” she said while smoothing his silly scarf when she noticed something on the side of his neck. 

“I know, Pen. She only tried to take a left turn on red one time, you know,” he teased, but Penelope didn’t hear him. She pushed the scarf aside and noticed a bruise on his neck accompanied by three small, red, crescent-shaped marks. It looked almost like fingernail indentations. 

Suddenly, Schneider took a step back and moved the scarf back into place. He chuckled dryly. “Oh, don’t worry. Nikki gets a little aggressive in bed,” he said with a suggestive laugh before following Alex and Elena out of the apartment, closing the door behind him. 

“ _Mami_ ,” Penelope called into the kitchen. The woman in question peeked through the window over the counter. “Did Schneider seem off to you?”

“Off?” Lydia repeated. “No, he is as he always is. A sexually adventurous man.”

“Ew, _mami_ ,” Penelope said loudly as she shuddered and made her way out the door. 

* * *

[Thursday evening]

“Hello, my loving family!” Penelope sang as she entered her apartment. Alex and Elena, who were sitting at the table and on the couch respectively, mumbled a disinterested greeting before going back to what they were doing. 

“What a warm welcome,” she droned, walking over to Alex. “Doing homework, _papito_?”

“Uh huh,” Alex said, not looking up. 

“Okay. What are you doing, Elena?”

“Uh huh,” Elena said, not looking up from her book. 

“Okay!” Penelope said, throwing her hands in the air. “I give up.”

“A-Schneider!” Lydia called out as she walked into the living room, leaving the man in question alone in the kitchen. “ _¡La familia quiere jamar!_ ”

“ _¡Lo sé, lo sé!_ ” Came from the kitchen as Lydia gathered the family for dinner and everyone sat down. 

“ _Mami_ , what’s going on?” Penelope asked as she and her mother sat down. 

“A-Schneider cooked dinner for us tonight.”

“Oh no,” Alex whined. “Do we have to eat off of wooden blocks again?”

“No, no, _papito_ ,” Lydia cooed. “I taught him a family favorite.”

“Is anybody hungry for some . . . _ropa vieja_?” Schneider asked as he stepped out of the kitchen with two plates in his hands. He set them down in front of Lydia and Penelope before grabbing two more plates on the counter for Elena and Alex. He went back into the kitchen once more to remove his apron and grab his own plate before settling down in his seat and looking around the table at the family, who were taking tentative bites of his meal. 

“Well?” he asked. “How’d I do?”

“Schneider,” Penelope exclaimed. “This is amazing! Exactly how _mami_ makes it.”

“Thank you!” Schneider and Lydia beamed at the same time. 

They all ate in silence for a minute before Penelope spoke up. 

“You’re not having dinner with Nikki tonight?”

“She had a thing with her friends,” he replied and shrugged. 

“Well, there is always room for you here,” Lydia told him and she lightly grasped his arm in a friendly manner. Although the gesture was meant to be kind, Schneider flinched as she did and pulled his arm back towards his body. 

“Are you okay, _mijo_?” Lydia asked as she retracted her hand. Schneider just pulled at the end of his long sleeves and nodded. 

“Yup, I’m good.” He went back to eating dinner as Lydia and Penelope shared a concerned look. 

* * *

[Friday morning]

The next morning, Schneider came down for breakfast wearing the most ridiculous outfit Penelope had ever seen. He had on a similar shirt and scarf combo as yesterday, but now he was also wearing a thin beanie and sunglasses. Considering the LA weather was almost never below 70 degrees Fahrenheit, the beanie made no sense. In addition, today was completely overcast. Schneider has no need for sunglasses today. 

“ _¡Hola mi familia!_ ” he exclaimed as he came inside the apartment. 

“ _Hola_ Schneider,” Lydia answered. “Are you hungry, _mijo_? Breakfast is almost over, but you are lucky I saved you _unas tostadas y café con leche_.”

“No thanks, Lydia,” Schneider politely declined. “I’m just coming down to grab Elena and Alex for school.”

“Go grab your stuff,” Penelope told her kids and they went to grab their backpacks from their rooms. 

“Are you sure you are not hungry?” Lydia asked him with an attitude of trying to make him feel guilty for declining her invitation to eat. “I can make you something if you do not want my special _tostadas_.”

“I always want your special _tostadas_ ,” Schneider told her as he stepped over to behind her chair and gave her a hug. Lydia held his forearms that came around her shoulders and smiled up at him, patting his cheek gently, not noticing how he flinched at the gesture. “Just not today. Next time, I promise.”

The kids came out of their rooms and Schneider let out a cheerful " _¡vamos!_ " before herding them out the door. 

Penelope grabbed her purse from the coat rack as her mom came over to her. 

“ _Lupita_ ,” she whispered, as if she had a secret to keep from the rest of the empty apartment. 

“Why are you whispering?” she asked her mom as if she was going crazy. “We’re the only ones here.”

“A-Schneider was wearing makeup!”

“Okay? If that’s what he wants to do, then he’s allowed to. Men don’t have to conform to—”

Lydia interrupted impatiently. “No, _Lupe_! He was wearing concealer to cover up a bruise on his eye.”

“What? Are you sure?”

“I am sure! He is not very good at it.”

Penelope paused to think. “Why would he have a black eye? He didn’t have one yesterday.”

“Do you think he went out last night and got a-mugged?!” Lydia gasped dramatically. 

Not rising to her mom’s antics, Penelope looked sad as she said, “No _mami_ , I don’t think that’s what happened. But I would like to know what did.”

* * *

[Friday night]

“ _Mami_ , I’m worried about Schneider.”

Lydia looked towards the front door that her daughter had just walked through. She sighed and left the kitchen to stand by her. 

“I know, _Lupita_. I am beginning to be concerned, too.”

Penelope sighed. Her mom wasn’t usually the first person to notice signs of trouble, especially within the family. She thought back to the time immediately after Penelope told Victor that she wanted a divorce. Her mother had flat out refused to listen to her daughter about her ex’s behavior or problems. 

“Has he been to the apartment today?”

“Not since he left this morning with Alex and Elena.”

“That’s weird for him. I’ve been trying to put my finger on it all day, but I don’t know what’s wrong. Do you think he using again? He seems jumpy,” Penelope thought out loud. 

“I don’t know. After his relapse, he seemed to be getting much better. Why would he have started again now?”

“I don’t know, but I think we have to find out.”

The pair went upstairs and knocked on Schneider’s door. A couple of minutes passed with another knock before he finally opened the door. 

“Oh hey guys,” he greeted. “What’s up?”

“Hey,” Penelope answered. “Can we come in for a minute?”

Looking over his shoulder towards the direction of his bedroom, Schneider seemed unsure. 

“Uh, now’s not the best time.”

“Babe!” The trio heard the call from inside Schneider’s apartment, and the man in question called back, “Yeah babe?”

“Can you also get me a glass of the Merlot in the top cabinet?”

Schneider closed his eyes, looking defeated, and sighed before saying, “Sure thing, babe.”

When he opened his eyes, he found a furious Penelope and a shocked Lydia both staring at him. 

“Are you serious, Schneider?!” Penelope yelled at him. “You’re drinking again?”

“No! I’m not. I promise I’m not. I swear on Alex and Elena,” he told them desperately. 

Immediately, Penelope trusted him. After his relapse that frightened Alex, she had a talk with her best friend and told him that he needed to be sober in order to stay in Elena and Alex’s lives because they couldn’t handle another father figure not trying to overcome his dependance. And Penelope wouldn’t put them through that, even though she would always be there for Schneider no matter what happens. Schneider teared up at the thought that he could be a positive male role model for the kids and vehemently agreed to do better for them. 

“Okay, I believe you.” Schneider let out a breath in relief. Penelope continued. “But why do you have alcohol in your apartment?”

“It’s Nikki’s. She drinks wine almost every night at dinner, but I’m fine. She knows that I’m sober and hardly ever wants me to drink with her.”

“What?” Penelope said at the confession. “She sometimes tries to make you drink?”

“ _Esa tipa es muy mala_ ,” Lydia whispered to her daughter and Penelope had to agree. 

“No, she doesn’t,” Schneider tried to tell them. “Well, she doesn’t anymore. It’s fine. We talked about it. We’re good now.”

“Babe! What the hell is taking so long?”

Schneider turned and saw Nikki approach the door to see Penelope and Lydia at the threshold. 

“Oh, hi Penelope. Penelope’s . . . mom, I’m assuming,” Nikki greeted blandly. 

“Ah yes, I am Penelope’s mother, Lydia. You were correct to change your first assumption that I am her sister,” the woman chuckled, annoyed. 

Nikki shot Schneider a confused look, but the man was shaking his head fondly at Lydia with a small smile on his face. 

“We were just asking Schneider something. It’s not important,” Penelope dismissed. “So date night? You guys are sharing some wine?” she prodded. 

Schneider knew exactly what his best friend was doing. She wasn’t trying to catch him in a lie; he knew that she believed him. She was trying to gauge Nikki’s reaction to his mentioned sobriety. 

“Ugh, no,” Nikki scoffed and laughed. “The wine is just for me. I never seem to be able to get this guy to loosen up and relax a little. He’s so boring.”

The way Nikki said this last statement was jokingly, as if she could share an inside joke with Penelope about Schneider being too uptight to drink, made Schneider look at the floor and it made Penelope livid. 

“No he’s not,” she shot back. “He’s been doing very well in keeping his sobriety. And we are proud of him for that.” She tried to look Schneider in the eye, but his gaze was still focused down at the floor in front of him. 

Nikki looked taken aback. “No, of course. He’s doing just great,” she said with a high-pitched voice, bringing her finger up to boop his nose as if he were a toddler doing something cute. He flinched when she did. 

“Well,” Nikki continued after a beat of awkward silence where Penelope and Lydia were glaring at Nikki, Nikki was looking to Schneider for help, and Schneider wouldn’t look at anyone. “It’s getting late. Bye bye now, Penelope, Penelope’s mom.”

And she shut the door in their faces. Penelope turned to look at her mom with a face that screamed “what the hell?!”

“I do not like that woman,” Lydia mumbled. 

"He flinched," Penelope whispered. 

"What?"

"When she touched his nose," she elaborated. "He flinched."

"So?"

"So, he still has that black eye."

“What? Do you think that tiny girl caused the bruise?”

Looking at Lydia with a mix of sadness and concern on her face, Penelope merely said, “I don’t know,” before the duo went back to their own apartment. 

* * *

[Saturday afternoon]

The next day was Alex’s last baseball game of the season. Luckily, it was a home game so that the whole family could go cheer him on. 

As Schneider pulled into the parking lot, Penelope looked over at him and asked if Nikki was going to join them. 

“Yeah, she’ll probably show up.” He gave no more information so Penelope dropped the subject. 

As the group found a place to sit in the stands, Penelope looked for her son as Elena and Lydia set up their cooler full of food. Schneider pointed past Penelope’s line of sight, straight towards Alex. She jumped up and cupped her hands over her mouth. 

“Hi _papito_! Good luck!” she yelled across the field to the boy as he was warming up with Finn. Alex briefly looked over and gave her a face that clearly said “stop, you’re embarrassing me,” but Penelope just blew him a kiss. She knew that he didn’t really mean it after they had talked about why they were always so animated in public, especially when they were celebrating him. 

The game went well and their team ended up winning. Penelope and Lydia were jazzed the entire time and Elena was her usual uninterested self, but Schneider seemed off. He wasn’t cheering as much with them and didn’t stand up once. Penelope didn’t hear a single "¡ _dale_!" from him, which was unusual. 

As the final inning ended and the teams did their congratulations, Schneider stood off to the side looking around before finding Nikki walking with a group of other players’ moms towards the exit. 

‘I guess she did show up after all,’ Penelope thought to herself. She saw Schneider step forward to catch Nikki’s arm, and she busied herself with packing up the cooler, trying not to eavesdrop on them, but failing anyways. 

“Hey,” Schneider greeted. “Finn played well today.”

“Yeah, he was good.” Nikki sounded disinterested in both her son’s game and the current conversation. 

“So I’ll see you at home?”

“Yeah, but late. I’m going out with the girls for dinner and drinks.”

“Oh okay.” Penelope couldn’t tell if Schneider sounded disappointed or relieved. “Bye, love you.”

When she didn’t reply, Schneider gave her a chaste kiss before she turned around and followed the group of ladies to the parking lot. He sighed and turned around to ask Penelope if she needed help carrying the cooler. Before she could answer, however, Elena jumped in. 

“I got it mom!” She lifted up the cooler, which she was technically able to carry, but it looked like it was pretty heavy as her arms strained with the weight. 

“Are you sure Elena? Schneider can help you with that,” Penelope told her daughter as the man in question nodded his head. 

“Mom,” Elena deadpanned. “I don’t need a man to swoop in and carry the heavy cooler that a girl can obviously do herself.”

“Okay, up to you.” Penelope watched as her daughter ambled slowly towards the car. 

At that moment, Alex bounded over to them and Lydia cried out, “Oh, my talented _papito_! You played a-so good today!”

“Thanks, _abuelita_ ,” Alex said as she hugged him. 

“Okay, my turn!” Penelope softly pushed her way over to her son and hugged him too. 

“Thanks, _mami_ ,” Alex said dutifully. 

After releasing her son from the tight hug, he turned around to face Schneider. 

“So,” Alex started. “How’d I do out there coach?”

Schneider smiled and held up his fist for a fist bump. “You did great, bud. Your swing is really starting to get some power behind it.”

Alex beamed at the compliment, always happy to receive any praise, but clearly very happy when it came from Schneider. He was always trying to impress him since the man became his own unofficial baseball coach. 

Watching the exchange between her son and her best friend, Penelope noticed how quiet Schneider seemed to be for the umpteenth time today. There was something holding him down and it was rubbing her the wrong way to see him not being his lively, personable self. 

“Hey _papito_ ,” Penelope called for his attention. When he looked back at her, she smiled wide and paused before asking, “how about we go out for dinner?”

Alex’s eyes widened comically. “Really?”

When his mom nodded, Alex whooped. “Yes! Thanks mom!” He hugged her and she laughed. 

“Okay,” she said as he released her from the hug. “Think about where you wanna go. Did you give Coach your ride home note?”

Satisfied with his nod and then turning to Schneider, Penelope asked, “Are you coming with us?” She was obviously expecting a yes, so when he hesitated and put his hand to the back of his neck, she frowned. 

“I don’t know. Nikki would probably want me home.” 

Before Penelope could decide if she was going to admit that she had overheard their earlier conversation, Alex told him, “Finn said that his mom was going out with the other moms. That’s why his dad is driving him home.”

Caught in his lie, Schneider looked at Alex, obviously not expecting his excuse to crumble, before nodding and giving a small “okay.”

“Yes! Let’s go!” Alex cheered before the whole group headed towards the car. Once everybody was inside and buckled, Schneider pulled out of the lot and began driving. 

“Have you decided where we’re going, _papito_?” Penelope asked, assuming that he will want to go to the restaurant that he always wants to go to. 

“TGI Fridays!” 

“Ugh,” Elena groaned. “We get to go out for dinner and we have to eat at a big corporate chain of American restaurants that glorify the fact that people hate four out of seven days of every week of their lives?”

Everyone else in the car groaned, except for Schneider who continued driving towards Alex’s favorite restaurant. 

“What?!” Elena argued. “Can’t we go to an authentic, family-owned Mediterranean café or something?”

“Elena,” Penelope interrupted. “It’s Alex’s big day, so he gets to choose the restaurant. The next time we go out, you can choose where we go. Okay?”

“Fine,” she mumbled as she crossed her arms and shrank down into the seat. 

When the family got to the restaurant, they didn’t have to wait for a table since it was still relatively early for dinner. Schneider was on his phone as soon as they entered the restaurant and kept checking back at it every few seconds. He was doing it so often that it started to look like a nervous tic to Penelope, but she couldn’t think of why he would be anxious about anything. 

‘Maybe I should ask him if anything is bothering him,’ she thought and then decided to bring it up once they got back home after dinner. 

Almost at the end of their meal, the Alvarezes were cheerful and chatting away happily. No one seemed to be anything but comfortable, not even Schneider. That is, until his phone buzzed from his pocket. He pulled it out and looked at the incoming text before furrowing his brows and looking around the restaurant. 

“Everything okay, Schneider?” It was apparent in the way his confused eyes looked back at everyone at the table that he had no idea who asked him the question, but he just whispered a “yeah, one sec” before standing up and heading towards the direction of the front entrance. 

Penelope looked over to the lobby where she could see a hostess arguing with none other than Nikki. By the way she was swaying, Penelope could tell that she was at least a little bit drunk. Excusing herself, Penelope stood up from the table and made her way over to the front just in time to hear Schneider ask Nikki, “what are you doing here?”

“Is everything okay?” Penelope asked as she came up behind Schneider. He startled at her question, obviously not realizing until now that she had followed him over to his girlfriend who was beginning to make a scene. 

Nikki stepped forward. “Everything is just fine, Penelope. Now if you’d excuse us.” Though her words were polite, they held an acerbic tone. She punctuated this by roughly taking Schneider’s arm and yanking him in the direction of the door. 

“Ow! Wait, Nikki,” he tried. “I drove everybody here.”

“So? They can walk home!”

Penelope saw indecision and exasperation in Schneider’s expression so she mumbled something about getting an Uber back home, hoping to deescalate the situation. It worked as she had planned, because he nodded his head in acceptance. 

“Wait, let me just say goodbye before we leave.” He sounded like he was pleading with her and even lowered his voice to add a small “please” to the end, like how kids do to win over their parents and get them to agree to stuff. 

“No Schneider!” Nikki yelled, causing Schneider to try to shush her by putting his hands up in a placating manner in front of him. She merely slapped them down, a loud sound emanating from the action. “We’re leaving.”

“Okay, okay,” he agreed, too willingly in Penelope’s opinion, before turning towards her with sad eyes. “Will you tell everyone I had to go? But tell Alex I said ‘great game’.”

“Of course,” she told him and nodded when he whispered his thanks. She could tell that he was embarrassed so in order to try to lessen his discomfort, Penelope thanked the hostess and turned back to walk towards their table. 

When she sat back down with her family, she could hear them asking if Schneider was okay, but all she could focus on was how, back at the hostess station, she could see him profusely apologizing to the hostess and handing her a few bills from his wallet, no doubt paying for the family’s entire meal. That’s when Nikki hit him upside the back of his head and pulled him by the arm out the doors and out of Penelope’s sight.

* * *

[Saturday night]

“Schneider,” Nikki droned for the nth time as they walked through his apartment door. “Come on. I just wanted to spend time with you. You can’t stay mad at me for that.” 

Schneider turned to look at her for a second and let out a sigh. Now that she was sober, it’s harder to argue with her about what just went down earlier that day. “I’m not mad, Nikki. I’m just—I don’t know, upset, I guess.”

Nikki crossing her arms over her chest. “Why?”

“Because you embarrassed me in front of the Alvarezes!” Schneider said angrily. 

“That’s not my fault!” Nikki shot back. “You were the one that didn’t tell me that you were going out to dinner with them.”

“I didn’t know that they were going to dinner until they invited me after the game. And I did tell you; I sent you a text.”

Nikki sighed. “You should have called. Really, you just should have come home. I was gonna come back here, hammered as hell, just to have awesome sex with you. And you weren’t even here! Why would you want to go out to dinner with them after you just spent the entire day with them? You see them every single day while I’m at work. I’m starting to think that there’s something going on. Maybe with Penelope.” She trailed off and Schneider sighed. 

“I already told you: I’m not doing anything with Pen. She’s my best friend.”

“I’m supposed to be your best friend! In addition to being your girlfriend.” 

Schneider just sighed again and dropped the conversation in favor of sitting down heavily on the couch. 

After a moment’s pause, Nikki said, “I don’t think that you should hang out with the Alvarezes for a while. Just until this calms down. Until you get your priorities straight.”

Schneider stared at the wall for a second before nodding and whispering, “Alright.”

Nikki nodded her head once and said, “Good,” telling Schneider that she was going to bed. He nodded his acknowledgment without looking up at his girlfriend as she walked away, leaving him to sit in the living room quietly, feeling very alone. 

* * *

[Sunday morning]

When Schneider woke up the next day, he left the bedroom where Nikki was still sleeping and sat on the couch, scrolling through social media, until he heard a knock at the door. When he opened it, he found Penelope waiting outside. 

“Pen?”

“Hey,” Penelope greeted as she tried to take a step into the apartment, but was blocked. 

“What’s up? What are you doing here?” Schneider asked as he motioned her back out into the hallway and shut his door behind them. He didn’t think Nikki would be too happy with him if she woke up and found him talking to Penelope after she specifically told him not to see the Alvarezes. 

“I was trying to text you last night after . . . you left the restaurant.”

“Oh, I forgot my phone in the car when we got home last night. Went out to get it this morning,” Schneider lied easily, knowing that Nikki had found his phone with Penelope’s texts and deleted them last night, telling Schneider that it hadn’t been anything important. 

“Oh,” Penelope said with a knowing look at her best friend, who doesn’t really ever forget his phone that gave him access to Instagram, especially now that Alex gave Schneider his finsta. Schneider himself even made it into one of the photos that Alex uploaded. 

“Well,” Penelope continued. “I have the apartment all to myself tonight. _Mami_ is going to the opera with Dr Berkowitz, and Elena and Alex have dates. Would you care to join me tonight to watch Outlander and eat pizza?”

“Oh,” Schneider said, pausing for a moment, trying to think of a plausible excuse. “Nikki and I—we have a . . . a thing, uh, tonight.”

Penelope gave Schneider a worried look. “Are you guys okay? She seemed pretty upset last night.”

“Yeah, we’re good. I’ll see you later, Pen,” he said as he opened his door and stepped inside. Penelope had a sad smile on her face as she bid him farewell and walked back down the hallway. 

Schneider sighed as he watched her leave and shut the door quietly. He hoped that this incident with Nikki would just blow over so he could go see his family downstairs again. 

The rest of the day went on smoothly with Nikki talking to him like normal. Realistically, Schneider knew she was still angry with him, but he was glad to spend time with her without fighting. That is, until they got on the topic of the Alvarezes yet again. 

“I’m just saying that the amount of time that you spend with them is weird!” she yelled. 

“No, it’s not! They’re my family and I like being with them.”

“Why don’t you like being with me this much?”

“I do! I love being with you!”

“Well, you have a really funny way of showing it!”

“I always invite you to sit with us at Alex’s games and Penelope has invited you to dinner many times, but you never want to go.”

“Because I don’t like them.”

“Well that’s a problem for me. I need my girlfriend to like my family.”

“I do like your family. Your father is very nice to me.”

Schneider groaned. “That’s not what I meant! Father doesn’t want me in his life; the Alvarezes do.”

“Well, I don’t want them in our life!”

“I’m not gonna stop seeing them. They’re the only people who have ever cared about me!”

“What about me, Schneider?! I care about you. Is that not enough for you?”

“That’s not what I meant. Stop twisting my words!” he shouted at her and she leveled a biting glare at him. 

“Why don’t you go calm down? Somewhere far away from me.”

“Fine!” Frustrated, Schneider stormed out of the apartment, leaving an angry Nikki behind. 

On his way to the stairs, Penelope stopped him in the hallway. 

“Schneider,” she said. “Are you okay? We heard yelling.”

Keeping his face neutral, Schneider answered, “Nothing’s going on. We’re just having a disagreement about something. It’s no big deal.” He stepped around Penelope and began walking down the stairs. She quickly followed after him. 

“Wait! Hey, I know that something’s going on with you and Nikki.”

“Nothing’s going on,” he threw back, as he quickened his pace. 

“Schneider!” Penelope tried desperately as she followed him. “Please, just talk to me. I can help.”

“There’s nothing to talk about because I don’t need any help.”

“Then why can’t we just talk?”

“Because I have to go.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to the store. I’m cooking Nikki dinner tonight.”

“I can come with you.”

“No!” Schneider raised his voice as he stopped and turned to look at Penelope, who stopped a step above him, giving her the perfect height to meet his eyes. 

“Schneider, is she not letting you see us?”

“No, Pen, she isn’t not letting me see you guys. I just didn’t want to go watch TV with you today, that’s all. Now if you’d please, I have to go to the store and you’re not making it easy!”

Penelope’s face softened for a second. “Schneider, please. _Mami_ and I are worried for you—”

“Well, don’t be! I’m fine!”

“Is everything okay, babe?” 

Schneider looked up and Penelope turned around to see Nikki descending the stairs behind them. He looked at Nikki for a second before nodding. 

“Yeah, just ran into Pen on my way out.”

Penelope looked back at Schneider and studied his face, hoping to find something in his expression that explains why he’s been acting odd lately. She couldn’t tell if he was scared or angry or anything. He just looked tired. 

“Okay then,” Nikki smiled. “You ready to go?” 

Walking around Penelope on the stairs, Nikki took Schneider’s hand and began descending once more. He looked sideways at Penelope, mumbling a goodbye before following his girlfriend. As they left the building, Schneider spared a small glance back and saw his best friend watching them leave with a sad expression. 

“You know that we’re going to talk about this, right?” Nikki squeezed his hand, interrupting his thoughts. Schneider bowed his head, staring pointedly at the ground in front of them as they walked to his car. 

* * *

[Sunday evening]

“So, why were you talking with Penelope?” Nikki asked as soon as they got back home from the store and Schneider walked into the kitchen with the bags to prepare their dinner. 

“Because she stopped me as I was leaving. She just wanted to chat since I couldn’t hang with her tonight,” Schneider lied smoothly. 

“She asked you to hang out tonight?” she questioned, raising an eyebrow at the accidental confession. 

“Oh, yeah, this morning. But like I said: I couldn’t tonight,” he tried to remedy, hoping Nikki would stop asking questions. 

“Hm” was all that she said before grabbing a wine glass and the expensive Merlot that she kept in the cabinet, pouring a glass and sitting down to drink at the counter. Schneider threw together a garbanzo bean stew and served it with some delicious left over pork shoulder that he had gotten from Lydia the other day. He set out two plates for them before grabbing a glass of water for himself. 

“Are you sure you have enough leftovers from dinner with the Alvarezes every night this week?” Nikki asked snidely. Schneider just ignored her and took a sip before starting on his food. 

“You know what I don’t get?” Nikki asked rhetorically. “Why do you spend so much time with Penelope? She’s just your tenant. I’m your girlfriend.”

Schneider looked sideways at her. “We spend time together, too, if that’s what you’re implying.”

“You know that it’s not.”

Schneider just sighed. “What do you want me to say? That I’m sleeping with Penelope? Because I’m not. I’m not cheating on you! Why won’t you believe me?” Schneider asked angrily. 

Nikki scowled at him. “Why would I believe you? You’re never home anymore. You’re always at their apartment!”

“Because they’re my family!” Schneider retorted. “They’re the only family I’ve ever had and I like spending time with them. All of them, not just Penelope.”

Nikki picked up her drink to take a sip before she shot back with, “You know, Schneider. You’ve really changed.”

At this, Schneider dropped his silverware onto his plate and turned towards Nikki. “Oh? How so?” he asked angrily. 

“You never used to lie this much.”

Schneider was so exasperated with the conversation that he stood and up began to clear his plate, not wanting to start another screaming match for everyone to hear. Nikki watched him while sipping her wine. 

“See? You don’t even have any more excuses!” she said heartily. 

“Because I’m not lying to you,” he shot over his shoulder. 

“Yes, you are!” Nikki shouted as she stood up angrily. 

“No, I’m not!” Schneider shouted back, somewhat childishly, as he turned towards Nikki to meet her gaze. 

“Shut up!” Nikki yelled as she threw her drink across the room in anger. “I know you are!”

Schneider ducked quickly to the side in order to avoid the flying glass that smashed against the fridge next to him. Slowly, Schneider looked up at Nikki, who was standing completely still with a surprised look on her face. 

“Babe,” she said calmly. 

But Schneider was out the door. He ran down the stairs towards the Alvarezes’ apartment. Knocking once on the front door before then realizing that he didn’t need to knock, Schneider opened the door and swept inside quickly before shutting and locking the deadbolt and securing the chain. 

“Schneider! What are you doing? _Mami_ and the kids will be home any minute.”

Schneider took a deep breath, still facing the door with his hand on the chain. When the realization that he was breathing heavily hit him, he moved his hand to cover his mouth, not wanting to alert Penelope. 

“Schneider?” The woman in question was at his side in an instant, sensing that something was wrong. “Are you okay?”

Nodding, Schneider let out a chuckle and said, “yeah ‘course,” as he turned his head to face her. With his eyes starting to water, Schneider couldn’t look his best friend in the face. 

“I’m sorry for barging in like this, Pen.” She let ot a laugh. 

“You—apologizing for barging in? I’d never thought I’d see the day!” she tried to joke. He didn’t laugh and just closed his eyes, causing Penelope’s demeanor to sober. 

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that. You know that you are always welcome to barge in. That’s what our family does,” she said, laughing softly and smiling wider when a small grin broke appeared on Schneider’s face. “Don’t you have dinner with Nikki tonight?”

“Nikki isn’t feeling well,” he lied easily. “Headache. And nausea. She took some meds and went to bed early. So here I am to watch some TV!”

Despite the concerned expression currently donning her face, Penelope very gently took for Schneider’s arm and led him to the couch. They both sat down side by side. 

Not removing her hand from Schneider’s arm, Penelope waited a moment before asking again, “Are you okay?”

When Schneider didn’t reply, instead just looking straight ahead at their TV, which was still playing Outlander, she grabbed the remote and turned it off. He didn’t look away, though. 

Penelope squeezed his arm. “Schneider, please tell me what happened.”

Even though Schneider stared straight ahead, he could see in his periphery that Penelope was looking straight at him with worry in her eyes, trying to gauge the severity of the situation. Schneider tried his hardest to keep his emotions in check—maybe he was still in shock from the incident—but once Penelope moved her other hand to rub circles in his back, Schneider took in a sudden, shaky breath. 

Schneider dropped his head to rest in his hands, supported by his elbows on his knees. He told Penelope what had just happened less than five minutes ago with Nikki while nervously tugging at his hair. 

“Nikki and I were fighting at dinner and she threw her wine glass at me. I ducked it but it smashed against the wall.”

After his confession, Schneider rubbed harshly at his eyes, angry at himself for running away from something so small and trivial, but also trusting Penelope to understand. Thankfully, she did. She rubbed Schneider’s back until he took a deep breath and finally looked up at her. 

“Do you want to talk about it?”

After a minute of silence, Schneider began to recount the arguments that he and Nikki had gotten into the day earlier, and right before the incident had occurred. 

Turning to Penelope, he said, “I’m sorry I lied to you.” 

As Penelope opened her mouth to say something, there came a rattling of the front door, like someone was trying to enter. Schneider’s breath caught in his throat as he stood up quickly and whipped his head towards the door. Penelope stood up next to him with a hand on his arm. 

“It’s okay. It’s probably _mami_ back from the opera,” she said as she maneuvered around the couch to get to the door, all the while looking at Schneider. While she moved towards the door, someone had unlocked the deadbolt with a key and opened the door as far as it could go with the chain secured. 

“Ah!” Lydia exclaimed. “ _Lupita!_ The door is a-locked!”

Penelope looked at her mom through the crack in the door and said, “One second _mami_!” She closed the door, unlatched the chain and opened it up wide. Lydia walked into the apartment and Penelope closed the door behind her and locked just the deadbolt. 

Meanwhile, Schneider had sat back on the couch, his head down and hands nervously picking at his cuticles. Lydia and Penelope exchanged knowing glances before the younger resumed her position on the couch with her hands once again placed lightly on Schneider’s forearm and back, rubbing circles slowly. Lydia slowly made her way over to stand in front of him. Then she turned and pulled the empty chair behind her closer to the man on the couch and sat down. Leaning forward, she grabbed Schneider’s hands in both of hers, effectively halting his nervous movements. 

“Schneider,” she said without getting a reaction from him. “Please, _mijo_ , _mírame._ ”

Slowly, Schneider picked his head up to look Lydia in the eye. He looked broken and tired. 

“Are you hurt?” He shook his head. 

“Are you afraid?” He paused before nodding slightly. Penelope felt tears run down her cheek but she didn’t wipe them away because she would’ve had to remove her hands from their positions on Schneider’s arm and back. 

Lydia sighed before saying, “Then you will stay with us tonight. _Esa tipa es tonta_ if she treats _mi chiquillo_ like he is anything other than _un osito_. Oh, _mijo_ , you are our _pedacito de Cielo_ and we love you. Very much.”

Schneider let out a quiet sob and looked down at his hands in Lydia’s, not knowing what to say. Lydia just took her hands and placed them on the sides of Schneider’s neck before leaning in to kiss his forehead. He lifted his hands to hold Lydia’s at his neck and looked up at her before nodding, letting his hands fall to his lap again. 

Lydia stood and said, “Alright _Lupita_ , let me set up my bed for our guest and I will be sleeping with you tonight.”

Penelope wiped a stray tear from her cheek. “Okay _mami_.”

Lydia went to change out of her formal dress and make up her bed for Schneider, who leaned back against the couch. As the curtain behind them slid closed, he looked over to his best friend, who had been unusually quiet. 

Penelope looked torn between being sad and being angry. Schneider had only ever seen her like this a couple of times, and one of them was when he thought he had ruined their friendship over taking the building condo. It hurt to see his best friend look so upset. 

He rubbed his hands over his face, sighed softly, and whispered, “Maybe this is all my fault.”

“What?” Penelope asked in surprise. “No, Schneider. This is not your fault. You’ve done nothing wrong.” 

Schneider just looked at her. “Nikki was right. I spend most of my time here, with you guys instead of being with her or being there for her when she gets home.” Schneider paused. “Did I drive her away?”

Penelope’s heart melted as she watched the desperate look on Schneider’s face as he tried to figure out why this had happened. Slowly, Penelope leaned forward so she could catch his eyes and tell him, “Listen to me. None of this is your fault. I promise.”

Schneider smiled at her, which Penelope returned with her own. 

“Come on,” she said, patting his arm softly. “Let’s get you some sleep.”

* * *

[Sunday night]

Penelope couldn’t sleep. Her mom was fast asleep right next to her, but she couldn’t, for the life of her, feel tired. She felt a mixture of anger and sadness, of concern for Schneider and hatred for his situation. She knew that Schneider loved Nikki, but there was no way that Nikki loved him back. No one who loved Schneider could ever even think to treat him that way. 

Even though she had locked the front door up tight after the kids had gotten home, Penelope was worried to have Schneider in the first room that an intruder could get to. Nikki knew that he was here. How could she not? His apartment and the Alvarezes’ apartment were his only safe havens. He wouldn’t be anywhere else unless he was out with the family. 

Heaving a soft sigh, she made her way out of bed without waking her mom. She checked that both of the kids’ doors were closed and the lights were off. They had told them that Schneider was staying over because his apartment had been fumigated earlier that day and he couldn’t go back in there until the morning. How much of that they bought, she wasn’t sure, but neither of them asked any questions and went about their nightly routine as normal. 

Quietly, Penelope padded out the room and into the hallway where she could see Schneider in bed. She just had to check on him and make sure he was okay. 

He was sitting up at the end of the bed, facing away from her. Penelope took a step closer. 

“Schneider?” she called softly. 

“Yeah?” came the even softer response. 

“Can’t sleep?”

“Yeah.”

She made her way into the room and sat down next to him on the bed. She put her hand on his arm, signalling that she was there to listen if he needed to talk. And he did. 

“Pen,” he whispered with his gaze downtrodden. “You can’t tell anyone what happened last night. Or what I told you. I don’t want to break up with Nikki and I don’t want the kids to know.”

Even though she wasn’t surprised at Schneider’s confession, Penelope was still disappointed that he was staying with his controlling girlfriend. What if this happened again? What if Schneider didn’t duck in time the next time this happened? 

“Schneider, I don’t think that’s—”

“Please, Pen.”

“Alright,” Penelope finally agreed and Schneider let out a sigh of relief before saying, “thanks” and laying back down to sleep. She looked at him, whispered “goodnight,” and went back to her room. 

* * *

[Monday morning]

Early the next morning, Schneider woke up, made Lydia’s bed, and left without staying goodbye. He couldn’t tell if anyone was awake or not, but they were probably still in their rooms, not wanting to wake Schneider by puttering around the kitchen. He walked up to his apartment as slowly as he could, taking a deep breath as he stopped in front of his door. 

“Nikki?” Schneider called quietly once he entered their apartment. He walked through the living room and into the kitchen, where he found out that the mess of glass and wine was completely cleaned up from last night. 

“Nikki,” Schneider called again louder this time before turning around just in time to see his girlfriend walk into the kitchen from the direction of the bedroom. 

“Schneider?” Nikki said quietly before closing the space between them, wrapping her arms around his neck, and engulfing him in a hug, which Schneider returned. 

“Oh, thank God.” Nikki released him from the hug and placed her hands on Schneider’s cheeks. “I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to. I love you so much. You have to know that, right?”

Schneider smiled through his watery gaze and nodded. Nikki let out a laugh of relief, wrapped her arms around his neck again, and kissed him. 

Nikki took the day off from work, Schneider texted Penelope that he couldn’t drive the kids to school today, and they spent the entire day together in the apartment, cuddling on the couch and watching movies. Schneider didn’t go over to the Alvarezes’ apartment at all, and that worried Penelope, who had been texting him nonstop since she woke up and found him missing from her apartment. He had to turn off his text notifications so that Nikki didn’t notice and texted her back from the bathroom. He made them a yuca and sweet potato hash with a pan-seared snapper and a Cuban coffee-cherry gastrique for dinner and Nikki complimented his cooking. 

Everything was back to normal and Schneider was happy. That is, until he woke up Tuesday morning and found Nikki staring at him, waiting for him to open his eyes, with his phone unlocked in her hand. 

Schneider pushed himself up onto his elbows and looked up at his clearly angry girlfriend. “Hey sweetie. What’s going on?”

Nikki didn’t return Schneider’s pet name, which was his first warning sign. “What’s going on is you’ve been texting Penelope.”

Schneider tried to keep his face neutral, but couldn’t help the stiffening of his back and arms. Nikki continued. 

“And she seems worried about you.”

“Oh,” Schneider commented. “I don’t know why. I just let her know that I couldn’t join them for dinner last night because I was spending quality time with you.”

“Did you now?” Nikki asked. “Did you tell her about our disagreement?”

Schneider swallowed hard. “No, I didn’t. Well, I mean I mentioned that we got into an argument but that’s it. I didn’t tell her anything”

“I don’t believe you.”

Nikki moved to get out of their bed as Schneider’s gaze dropped to look at the sheets. 

“You went down there after our fight, didn’t you?!” he heard Nikki accuse as she turned around to face the wall. Schneider looked up at his girlfriend and quickly got out of bed to move towards her. 

“Nikki, please, I’m sorry,” he pleaded. “I didn’t know where else to go. I didn’t want to upset you.”

When Nikki turned her gaze onto Schneider again, the latter could see the anger in the woman’s eyes. Quickly, he took a step back, but she just took a step forward. 

“See?” Nikki shouted. “This is exactly what I have been talking about! You only care about those stupid people downstairs! They are your tenants, not your goddamn family! No matter how much you insert yourself into their lives!” 

Having said this, Nikki threw Schneider’s phone against the wall, which definitely at least shattered the screen, if not broke the whole thing. 

Schneider just stared at whatever remained of his phone while Nikki stormed over to him. Once she was right in front of him, she began to hit him on his chest and head with open palms. Only a few hits landed before Schneider grabbed both of her wrists, tight enough that she stopped swinging, but not tight enough to hurt her. Suddenly, she jerked her arms back and out of Schneider’s grip. 

“Let go of me!” So he did and held his hands up in surrender. Nikki turned around quickly, holding her wrists as if they were injured. 

“I’m sorry. Are you okay?” Schneider asked, but did not step towards her, afraid that she would start hitting him again. 

Nikki didn’t answer, but paused in her dramatics before quickly grabbing the lamp of off his nightstand, turning around, and hitting Schneider on the side of his head with the lamp, which promptly broke in half. 

He wasn’t sure of exactly what happened next, but Schneider thinks that he fell to the floor and Nikki left the apartment because when he opened his eyes, he was laying on his side with his cheek against the carpet. He didn’t see or hear his girlfriend. 

Sitting up slowly, Schneider brought a hand to his temple and was surprised to find blood on his fingers when he took it away. He also realized that he was not wearing his glasses, which he quickly found on the ground next to him. The lens on the side that Nikki hit him was cracked, but the frames were still in one piece, so he slid them back on his face. 

After sitting there on the floor for a few minutes to make sure that Nikki wasn’t coming back, Schneider stood up shakily and thought about what to do. His temple was bleeding and he had one of the worst headaches of his life. He didn’t know what to do, but he knew who would. 

* * *

Penelope looked up from the patient chart she was finishing up and over at her cellphone as the ringtone rang out. The caller ID said that it was her mom. 

“ _Mami_?” Penelope answered. 

“Oh, _Lupita_!” Lydia all but shouted down the phone. “Oh, _gracias a Dios_.”

“What’s wrong?” 

“It is Schneider,” she said. “He is here at the apartment.”

“Okay, isn’t he always at our apartment?”

“ _Lupe_ , he is hurt.”

“What?” she whispered to herself more than anyone else. “I’m on my way.”

The drive to back to the apartment was short in terms of minutes, but, to Penelope, it was the longest drive of her life. She pulled into their garage, jumping out and running into the building. Penelope ran up the steps and threw open their front door. 

She stepped into the living room and stopped abruptly. Schneider was sitting on their couch with a bag of frozen vegetables held to his temple. His glasses were on the coffee table in front of them, one of the lenses broken. Lydia had her hand on Schneider’s other arm, rubbing it slowly and whispering to him. Quietly, she turned around and shut the door, locking the deadbolt before pausing and also latching the chain. 

“Oh, _Dios mío_ ,” Penelope whispered as she took a step towards Schneider, who lowered the makeshift icepack to look over at her. 

The first thing she noticed was that he had dried blood formed on his temple, and a bruise was beginning to form surrounding it, extending to underneath his right eye. Although that seemed to be the extent of his injuries, his face exuded pain. She could tell that he was emotionally wrecked from whatever had happened, so she wasn’t even sure if she wanted to know. But being his best friend meant that she had to fix this. 

Penelope sat down on Schneider’s right side so that he was sitting between her mom and herself. She said nothing as her hand came up to tilt his head so that she could examine the wound. 

_Shallow abrasions to the temple without noticeable foreign bodies in need of debridement. Contusions extending from the temple to the periorbital tissue, likely to become a full blown black eye. Normal conjunctiva with no signs of corneal abrasion, subconjunctival hemorrhage, or hyphema._

Letting her hand fall away from Schneider’s face, Penelope tried to look him in the eyes, but he kept his head down and his eyes locked on the floor in front of them. Looking over to her mother, Lydia looked a wreck; she was watching Schneider and Penelope at the same time with a look of both shock and anger on her face. 

Slowly, Penelope stood up and went to get her first aid kit from underneath the bathroom sink. She brought it back out to the living room and began cleansing Schneider’s wound with an alcohol prep pad. 

“This may sting,” was all that she said to prepare him, even though he didn’t acknowledge her ministrations at all and just stared straight ahead. 

Just as Penelope finished wiping the fresh and dried blood away from the wound, there came a rattling of the front door, like someone was trying to enter. Schneider’s breath caught in his throat as he whipped his head towards the door. Penelope stood up, placing her hand gently on his shoulder in what she hoped was a calming fashion. 

“It’s okay. It’s probably Elena and Alex getting home from school,” Penelope said as she maneuvered around the couch to get to the door, all the while looking at Schneider, who looked like he was about to run if Lydia’s hands were still not holding his forearm. While Penelope moved towards the door, someone had unlocked the deadbolt with a key and opened the door as far as it could go with the chain secured. 

“What the?” Penelope heard her daughter say. “ _Abuelita?_ Is everything okay?”

Penelope looked at her kids through the crack in the door and softly said, “Everything’s okay now. One second.” She closed the door, unlatched the chain, and opened it up wide. She motioned for Elena and Alex to come into the apartment before she shut the door, re-securing the chain. The kids looked at their mom, looked at Schneider who was still watching the door and not moving, and finally looked at each other with worried glances. 

“ _Mami,_ why are you home so early? What’s going on?” Elena asked. She and Alex followed their mom’s gaze to Schneider and Lydia on the couch, both of who locked eyes with Penelope. She kept her gaze on him, though, as he swallowed hard and nodded, trusting her to handle the situation with delicacy and honesty. 

“Sit down guys,” she said and motioned to the couch before walking over to Schneider and placing her hand on his shoulder, effectively tearing his gaze away from the door and letting it fall on the floor in front of him. Alex sat next to his _abuelita_ on the couch and Elena sat in the chair near the dining room table. Penelope paused, trying to think of what to say. Schneider lowered his head and gazed at his hands, which were picking roughly at his cuticles. 

“Alex, Elena. Schneider came over today because he wasn’t safe at home,” she told them softly but clearly. 

Elena’s eyes widened and she spared a small glance to the man in question. After looking back at her mom to try to determine if there was any way she misheard the situation, and finding nothing, she leaned forward and tried to catch Schneider’s gaze. He wouldn’t look up at her, though, so she just looked back to her mom. 

Alex did not understand quite as quickly. He looked at Schneider, then Lydia, then to Elena, and finally back at Penelope. 

“What do you mean he wasn’t safe?” he asked. “Are they still fumigating?”

“Alex,” Elena started to explain quietly, but Penelope cut her off with just a gesture. She lowered herself to sit in the last open seat, the chair next to Schneider’s end of the couch, and looked her son in the eyes. 

“ _Papito_ ,” she said slowly. “Sometimes people do things that make other people scared to be near them. They feel like these people could hurt them. Sometimes emotionally, but sometimes physically. And when that happens, the people around them don’t feel safe.”

“Like _papi_? That night he woke us up,” Alex asked quietly. Penelope sighed. 

“Sometimes, yes. Like _papi_ that night when he was sad. But sometimes, it’s like the nights where _papi_ was angry. And he would throw things.”

Alex’s eyes softened as he listened to his mom. Then, he looked over at Schneider, who was still picking at his fingernails. Elena glanced back at her brother to see if the sudden silence meant that he understand the gravity of the situation. Then she quickly turned back to look at Schneider’s hands, watching to make sure he didn’t hurt himself or make his cuticles bleed. 

“Is she gone?” Elena asked. 

“Not yet,” Penelope answered. “But he’s not going back until she is.”

Elena seemed content with this answer and leaned back into the chair. Alex spoke up next. 

“Did this happen last night too?”

Penelope spared a glance to her best friend, still being very quiet, before nodding her head at her son. 

Elena stood and walked around the couch to Schneider’s side before tightly wrapping her arms around his shoulders. Alex stood and did the same, putting his arms around Elena and Schneider both. They let go after just a moment, but it was enough for Schneider to tearfully look up at them and whisper, “Thank you guys.”

“We’re here for you. Always,” Elena said and Alex chipped in a quiet “yeah”.

“Listen to them, _mijo_ ,” Lydia told him. “They are right. We are always here for our family.”

Schneider couldn’t speak without crying so he simply nodded at Lydia, who took his cheeks in her hands and softly kissed his forehead. 

**Author's Note:**

> Te He Querido, Te He Llorado - I Have Loved You, I Have Cried For You
> 
> Esa tipa es muy mala - Literally, "that girl is very bad" but 'esa tipa' has a condescending and derogatory connotation
> 
> Esa tipa es tonta if she treats mi chiquillo like he is anything other than un osito. Oh, mijo, you are our pedacito de Cielo and we love you. - That girl is silly if she treats my boy like he is anything other than a teddy bear. Oh, my son, you are our little piece of Heaven and we love you.


End file.
